close to the ancestral Vietnamese. Other loyalists joined him, and in
1418 Le Loi launched his campaign to drive out the Chinese. At first
he had little success. An attempt to gain Lao support was subverted by
the Chinese and Le Loi was almost captured. His opportunity came in
1424 with the death of Yongle.
Over the next year Le Loi seized all the region from the frontier
of Champa to north of Nghe-an, but for isolated Chinese garrisons in
district centres. By the end of 1426, much of the Red River delta was
in his hands. Massive Chinese reinforcements were not enough to
stem the Vietnamese advance, and in early in 1428, after yet another
significant Vietnamese victory, a face-saving peace was concluded.
Remaining Chinese forces were permitted to withdraw without further
attack. Le Loi was left to found the Le dynasty, grudgingly recognised
by the Ming court in 1431 after appropriate tributary submission. The
Xuande emperor loftily proclaimed: ‘I am specially sending envoys
with a seal and am ordering that [Le Loi] temporarily take charge of
the affairs of the country (guo) of Annam and govern the people of the
country.’^13 No longer was Vietnam a Chinese province.
The Ming invasion of Vietnam had given the Vietnamese
another national hero. Once again the lesson was learned: Chinese
occupation could be defeated by refusing to surrender, mounting a
guerrilla resistance, and fighting a protracted war relying on popular
support. It was a recipe that served the Vietnamese well into the
twentieth century. But a further step was necessary. After defeating
Chinese armies on Vietnamese soil, peace had to concluded in the
only face-saving way that was acceptable to the Chinese—that is, by
restoring the hierarchical tributary relationship. At this the Viet-
namese were adept. Vietnamese officials, good Confucian mandarins
that they were, knew exactly the right form of address to use in
humbly requesting imperial favour. And the Chinese, pragmatic
about a lost cause, graciously responded by permitting Le Loi to rule
his country as a nominal Chinese vassal. Thus was the security of
Vietnam ensured.
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia